Hinges are widely used to connect two or more members, allowing them to rotate relative to one another. Examples of the use of hinges include connecting lids to containers and doors to frames. They are often designed to rotate relatively freely between preset stopping points, such as fully open or fully closed positions. However, in many instances it would be desirable to be able to reversibly position the members at a selected position relative to one another in such a way that they are both held in position and do not further rotate relative to each other in normal use but can be further moved to other selected positions by the use of a force that is greater than that experienced by the members during normal use. By “reversibly position” is meant that the members can be repeatedly moved relative to one another from the position in which they were initially placed, and maintained in that subsequent position regardless of movement of the body to which the members are attached.
The use of such a hinge device would be particularly useful in vehicle doors, and in particular during the vehicle manufacturing process. During manufacturing, vehicles such as automobiles are often painted in a multi-step process on assembly lines. During the painting process, it is often necessary to open, close, and otherwise adjust the positions of doors connected to the bodies of vehicles by hinges relative to the bodies, often in an automated fashion by robots. Doors can be placed and held in desired positions using wire forms or metal brackets, but these supports must be individually installed, adjusted, and removed, which requires intervention by a worker and thus adds complexity to the painting process. Furthermore, after a few cycles in the painting process, it is often necessary to clean the supports, making this technique still more complex and labor-intensive.
It is known to insert a tightly-fitting plastic collar device around a vehicle door hinge pin. The plastic collar has a tab that interlocks the collar to the side of the hinge attached to the door. The collar serves to provide resistance to door rotation. However, during the painting process, the vehicles can go through several heating and cooling steps during which the maximum temperature can reach or exceed 120° C., which can cause the plastic collar to lose its grip on the hinge pin as the plastic is annealed and expands and contracts during the heating and cooling cycles. This can lead to inconsistent and unreliable operation of the device as it will often fail to hold the door firmly in a desired position. Thus a device that can withstand several heating and cooling cycles without losing its grip on a hinge pin would be desirable.
It is an object of the present invention to obtain a device capable of holding two members connected by one or more hinges in an selected position between or including fully open (meaning the hinge surfaces maintain the members as far apart as possible) or fully closed (meaning that the hinge surfaces maintain the members in closest proximity to one another) that did not require the use of supports that must be manually removed and reinstalled each time the position of the members needed to be changed. A feature of the present invention is in one embodiment the use of such a device in a vehicle door hinge assembly. An advantage of the present invention is that such a device can withstand the forces imparted on the vehicle by the jerky motion and starting and stopping of many conveyer operations by not preventing the vehicle door from moving significantly from its set position. These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become better understood upon having reference to the detailed description herein.